I was once in the audience for a panel of diary farmers. ”It used to take 6 weeks to harvest hay and bring it into the barn. Now with machinery, it can be done in a day and a half. The funny thing is, it is not as though I am sitting twiddling my thumbs for the extra five and a half weeks that I used to take haying.”

I was thinking about this recently when mowing around bits of fern pushing forth in the grass. I will come back later with the grass shears and unveil the rest of them.

Before we slept here, I marked you with tape,

keeping you save from slash of the saw

to honor your grandeur and years of life

- many oaks became eight.

Earlier this month there was a missive from Bean’s school. As the Hudson Valley deals with the deluge of spongy moth caterpillar, small dark caterpillars that can cause skin irritations… students will be kept off blacktops and playgrounds to limit the chances of exposure.

I was flummoxed. Spongy moth caterpillars?* Falling from the sky? Two days later in the soccer fields I continually picked off 1/2 inch long black wiggles from skin, clothing, bag, water bottle, chair, other people’s shirts, etc. They are falling from a clear sky and I am at least 300 yards from the tree line. What in the world?!

And both children broke out in itchy hives wherever one lingered too long on bare skin.

“It’s crazy! They take out the pits! They take out the seeds! It is delicious! It is so good!” Dragon sipped fresh juice as the machine whirred on its next batch.

“Tell me why you like making apple juice.”

“It’s fun watching.” Dragon put down his glass and stood on a stool assuming his observing stance - hands on knees, all the better to peer into the moving parts of the juicing machine.

“Because it is fun looking at this.” Bean pointed to the extruding pulp/skin/seeds from the rotating arm. She pushed the plunger down. “I like doing this.”

“I like the watching the stuff - the detritus coming out.”

English Major Momma point!

This seems apparent to note - but plants, like children, change.

Like well cared for children, well cared for plants grow with vigor and joy.

Like curious courageous children, plants do not like staying within lines, following other’s ideas of decorum and placement.

In other words, my new favorite toy is an electric hedge trimmer.